Ill-fated cyclist fights to hold on

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Had Andry Sudrajat, a national cyclist, known he would not be going to the upcoming Asian Games he would not have leased his small store he and his family rely on to survive.

Andry recalled that when he was called-up by the Indonesian Cycling Association (ISSI) in October last year, he decided to focus on cycling.

That meant having to abandon the shop which by then served as his family's only financial resource.

"I leased it because I thought I could not focus on training while I did the selling," he said from Tangerang, the western suburb of Jakarta, when contacted by The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Andry, 29 years old, said that his small shop sold staple foods and electronic appliances.

"I sold big, I cleared the storage and moved out," he said.

The pre-Asian Games preparations did not end up going his way. He was eliminated from the team after he was declared to have failed a fitness test at the Jatiluhur reservoir from Jan. 7 to Jan. 13.

The test, administered by the National Sports Council (KONI), saw almost all of the 171 athletes preparing for the Busan trip undergo a medical screening and psychological testing. Andry and rower Tiori Simarmata did not get through.

"I'm definitely disappointed. I learned about the news when I was at my hotel. Pak Yosep (an ISSI official) told me that KONI would send me back home because I flopped in the test," he said.

His voice signaled despair. "I have nothing to do now. I'm just idle," he said, adding that he had come to the call-up with high confidence and optimism about the Busan 2002 Asian Games.

Andry said he was introduced to the sport by his friends and first joined the national training center for the Manila Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in 1990 but missed inclusion.

His international debut was at the Hiroshima Asian Games four years later when he broke into the top eight Asian riders.

He won a gold medal at the 1995 SEA Games in Chiang Mai, but his performance declined in Jakarta in 1997 when he only won bronze.

However, he was the best in his class at the national level when he won a gold at the Surabaya 2000 National Games (PON).

But he said it was the Asian Championship in Tehran in 1995 that he remembered most, when in the face of stiff competition he won silver.

Cycling did not feature in Brunei 1999. In Kuala Lumpur 2001, it did, but Andry opted not to go for a contention. He skipped the tournament when he abandoned his training due to family commitments.

"I quit the training ground and stayed away from the tournament because my wife had a high-risk pregnancy," he said. The child later miscarried and died.

Andry was one of the three riders specializing in the Olympic Sprint along with Sama'i from East Java and Dadang Haris from Yogyakarta.

Didi Sudiyanto, one of the coaching staff members, said that Andry's role in the team would probably be taken either by Wawan Setyobudi or Agus Yulianto.

Although he said that he could accept the decision, Andry expressed disbelief about the results of the test, given the tough training regime he adopted before the Jatiluhur program.

"I had trained for three months before going to Jatiluhur. I did the exercises for endurance and speed around two hours on average almost every day, except for Sunday.

"I wish I had been confronted with the details of the test so that I would have been able to pinpoint the weaknesses and target them in the future," he said.

Despite his disappointment, Andry said that he would continue training and hoped that he would be included in the team for the Hanoi SEA Games 2003 in Vietnam.

"I will simply keep training and see whether or not I have the power," he said, adding that he hoped to compete in the 2004 National Games (PON) in Palembang, South Sumatra.